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Simple Snowflake Balance Game (With Learning Snuck In!)

BY DYAN ROBSON, AND NEXT COMES L

Jan 16, 2017

With every season or holiday change, I like to run to the dollar store to stock up on seasonal foam shapes. They're so versatile and we end up using them for a variety of activities for the kids. I recently picked up these large foam snowflakes from the dollar store. One activity that my kids always enjoy doing with these foam shapes is a balance game.

Foam snowflakes on a carpet

I also love that you can sneak in all sorts of learning into this simple snowflake balance game (see the end of this post for ideas), such as sight words, math, or letters.


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Simply create a path for the kids using the foam snowflakes. It can be a straight path, if you want, or you can make it bend and sway to make it a bit harder. You can make it as simple or challenging as you want simply by spacing the snowflakes closer or farther apart as well.

A boy walking on the snowflakes on the ground

Then encourage your kids to walk across the path. Try encouraging them to:

  • walk across only on their tip toes
  • walk backwards
  • touch only the snowflakes and if they touch the floor, then they have to go back to the start
  • hopping from snowflake to snowflake, either on one leg or both legs
  • crawling across the snowflakes, making sure hands and feet touch only the snowflakes and not the carpet
  • stepping from every other snowflake
  • walk across the snowflakes while carrying something
  • picking up snowflakes behind them after they move to the next snowflake

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A boy walking on snowflakes on the ground

If you want to sneak in some extra learning, then you could try these ideas:

  • label each snowflake with a sight word and have your child read the words as they walk across
  • number the snowflakes and have your child count as they walk across
  • label each snowflake with the letters of the alphabet and have your child name the letters as they walk across
  • write simple math equations on each snowflake and have your child answer the question before they move to the next snowflake
Article Author Dyan Robson
Dyan Robson

Read more from Dyan here.

Married to her high school sweetheart, Dyan is mom to two boys, J and K, who also teaches piano out of her home. On her blog And Next Comes L, Dyan shares her story of raising a child with hyperlexia, hypernumeracy and autism, amongst a variety of sensory activities for kids. You can find out more about their story on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram and Google+.